The anxiety that comes from losing your mobile phone connection -- or the phone itself -- is common enough these days that there's a name for the phenomenon: mobophobia. That stress is bad enough, but it's nothing compared to losing the device and losing your mobile data, too. You can easily replace the mobile device – but you can't get your data back. Our colleagues at ITBE put together a slide show of five action steps you can take right now to protect your mobile device data from loss or theft.

The use of smartphones has skyrocketed in recent years, and they're now a repository for the vast amount of personal and work data that mobile-empowered workers are able to bring everywhere. Given their widespread use and portability, however, it is inevitable that many mobile devices will get misplaced or stolen.